AutoLaunch using shuttle

[willissteve0]

Hi there

just been playing with the shuttles with the shuttlefleet mod from Orbiterhanger and the latest release of orbiter.

i have noticed that when flying the shuttle you have to be very precise cause of the amount of fuel you have. so oviously i wait for a launch window when aiming to orbit with ISS but when i take of getting to orbit is easy enough but getting to a more precise orbit im finding difficult.

ie to fly to ISS i need to wait for it to cross overhead then launch and fly to the same orbit and in the same direction, getting to same orbit is easy matching its orbital plane is not so easy evertime i try to align planes with it i run out of fuel.

So is there a mfd program that will autolaunch the shuttle with the settings i would need?

or am i just doing this all the wrong way?

cheers

 

[-Pv-]

If I remember right, the Shuttle Fleet scenarios almost always come with a default inclination/heading of 42 degrees (for North/East launches.) Make sure your launch window is in this direction if you don't want to edit the scenario. Also, the ISS may not be at 42 degrees. As you've noticed, even a degree or two uses a lot of alignment fuel. I have edited the scenarios to fix this. If you have launchMFD handy, it will tell you the correct heading and launch time/date for the ISS target. I then edit the scenario to change the time to 10 minute ahead of this and the
TGT_HEADING entry in the shuttle ship section to that supplied by LAUNCH. This will reduce your alignment to a very small amount.
-Pv-